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"There is a terrible desperation to the increasingly pathetic rationalizations from the climate denial camp. This comes as no surprise if you take the long view; every single undone paradigm in history has died kicking and screaming, and our current petroleum paradigm 🐉🦕🦖 is no different. The trick here is trying to figure out how we all make it to the new ⚡ paradigm without dying ☠️ right along with the old one, kicking, screaming or otherwise." - William Rivers Pitt

Topic Summary

Posted by: AGelbert

Yesterday, we wrote about SunEdison's recent acquisition spree, buying up some of the biggest solar and wind developers in the world.

But that's not all. This week, SunEdison will launch another yieldco on the public markets - TerraForm Global (NASDAQ: GLBL). It plans to raise $1.1 billion in the IPO with shares in the $19-$21 range.

Posted by: AGelbert

With investors loving solar again on the public markets, the only major US solar installer that's still private will soon launch an IPO - and that's Sunrun.

According to its SEC filing, it plans to raise at least $100 million under the ticker, RUN.

Like SolarCity and Vivint, Sunrun installs solar at no upfront cost and instead, collects fixed monthly fees via long term contracts. Unlike its competitors, Sunrun is dedicated to residential installations and has 75,000 customers in 13 states.

Founded in 2007, Sunrun reported revenue of $198.6 million for 2014, almost quadruple that of the previous year ($54.7 million). Soaring expenses, however, still produced a net loss of $167.5 million, up from $66 million in 2013, according to the SEC filing.

Since it only has about $105 million in cash on hand, Sunrun needs to go public this year or find other sources of financing. It has raised $265 million in venture capital over the years.

We're surprised to see that while SolarCity has many more customers (218,000), Sunrun is ahead on revenue. Sunrun's total installations come to 430 megawatts, compared to SolarCity's 500 MW in 2014 alone, estimated to reach 1 gigawatt for this year, as it moves forward on its new microgrid-as-a-service.

Posted by: AGelbert

NEW YORK -- SunEdison Inc. is seeking as much as $700 million in an initial public offering of a unit investing in wind, solar and hydro projects in emerging markets, the first of its kind.

This year’s best-performing U.S. solar company filed Thursday to list the so-called yieldco after buying 757 megawatts of renewable-energy assets in Brazil, China, India and other developing nations. The company also acquired rights of first offer to buy other projects with 1,918 megawatts of capacity.

The TerraForm Global Inc. yieldco will own and operate the power-generation assets in high-growth emerging markets, the Maryland Heights, Missouri-based company said Thursday in a statement. Yieldcos allow developers to raise lower-cost capital by selling projects to fund additional ones, while offering attractive returns to shareholders.

The new company gives SunEdison “a separate vehicle with a very different risk profile” and a more “global breadth” than its already listed TerraForm Power Inc. yieldco, Jeffrey Osborne, analyst at Cowen & Co. in New York said by e-mail.

“It allows them to accelerate the cash collection from the projects that have been built and are sitting on the balance sheet,” he said.Renewable energy companies like NRG Energy Inc. and Abengoa SA have listed similar units, mainly holding assets in the U.S. Most recently SunPower Corp. and First Solar Inc. said in February that they’ll form a joint yieldco.

SunEdison has been working to develop projects in emerging economies for more than five years and now has in place a presence that allows them to finance projects at lower costs than locals, Cheif Executive Officer Ahmad Chatila said.

‘Strong Engine’

“We have a strong engine for projects in emerging markets,” he said in an interview. “The cost of capital is the biggest challenge for renewable energy everywhere but especially so in emerging markets.”

SunEdison’s asset purchase also include projects in Peru, South Africa and Uruguay, the company said. Terms weren’t disclosed and the transactions are expected to close by the third quarter.

The acquisitions are the first stage of SunEdison’s plan to capitalize on providing renewable power to fast-growing emerging markets, Chatila said in the statement.

SunEdison jumped 8.8 percent to $27.01 at 11:57 a.m. in New York after rising as much as 9.9 percent, the biggest intraday gain since Nov. 18. The shares are up 38 percent this year, the most of any U.S. solar company.

The company also said it secured a total of $362 million in financing from Terraform Global’s joint bookrunners to buy renewable energy projects. SunEdison has obtained $175 million of equity investments from Blackstone Group, Everstream Opportunities Fund II and Altai Capital Management.

Posted by: AGelbert

Anybody that listened to my advice to GO a few days ago did quite well. :icon_mrgreen:Tough luck for MKing that doesn't believe I "do the math". He likes SLB and won't sell, despite my advice to do so for the nearly a month now.

Posted by: AGelbert

Energy Efficiency and Renewables Are Lowest Risk/Cost Investments for Utilities

Sheryl Carter, NRDC December 02, 2014 | 2 Comments

A new report by utility and finance experts contains positive news for the environment, our air and our (and our utilities’) pocketbooks — the economics of electric power resources have made zero-emissions energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies the most financially attractive options to meet the nation’s future energy demands.

The report by the nonprofit organization Ceres, entitled “Practicing Risk-Aware Electricity Regulation: 2014 Update,” says energy efficiency, distributed (onsite) energy, and renewable energy (whose costs, in some cases, have come down dramatically since 2012) are enticing investments for utilities because they bring lower risks and will cost less than traditional energy sources used to generate electricity.

And almost without exception, the report says the investments that could cause the most financial harm for utilities, ratepayers, and investors are large base-load fossil fuel and nuclear plants, which are riskier and more expensive.

“The report's risk profiles make clear that energy efficiency is the cheapest, safest investment by far, followed by wind and solar energy technologies whose costs have dropped dramatically the past two years," says Ceres President Mindy Lubber.

We already knew that energy efficiency — aka smarter use of energy — is the cheapest, most abundant investment out there, as I noted recently in discussing the International Energy Agency (IEA) Energy Efficiency Market Report 2014 that demonstrated the global savings from energy efficiency are greater than the output from any other single fuel source — including coal, oil, nuclear, and gas. Meanwhile, the first national limits on power plant carbon pollution will increase energy efficiency, which will reduce the cost of compliance.

But as Ronald Binz, one of the authors of the new Ceres report, says, “the dramatic decline in the costs of renewable energy, especially utility-scale solar,” represents a major development that could have far-reaching consequences.

The changing economic landscape combined with the pending EPA power plant standards to reduce carbon pollution, does not mean change will come overnight or that there will be any let-up by the supporters of coal and nuclear power. But the trend line is positive and strongly suggests that the old ways of doing business for utilities and state regulators are no longer as viable as they once were, and in fact carry significant financial risk.

The latest findings by Ceres, a nonprofit organization that seeks to mobilize business an investor leaders on climate change, reaffirms the conclusions and recommendations in its 2012 report, “Practicing Risk-Aware Electricity Regulation: What Every State Regulator Needs to Know,” that discussed the aging power plant fleets, evolving technologies and regulations for climate change, and the changing nature of the risks that these challenges present for utilities, customers and shareholders.

The Latest Findings

In examining the conditions facing today's electric power industry, the new report cites a number of salient facts and reached some important conclusions that should be heeded by the utility industry as its plans how to address the nation’s energy needs, including:

•There is a clear and durable imperative for clean energy in the United States, driven by advancing technology, federal air quality rules, and the lower cost and risk profile of renewable and demand-side energy resources. Renewable energy technology costs have fallen sharply, closing the cost gap between renewable resources and traditional fossil fuel resources. Solar photovoltaic energy costs, in particular, have declined precipitously in recent years while wind and solar costs are expected to continue to fall through at least 2020, a characteristic not shared by other generation technologies.

•Utility business models conversations are shifting from a simple “cost of service” approach to consideration of one that expands utility service offerings and capabilities in light of carbon reduction goals, grid resilience needs, and customer engagement imperatives. This transformation is already happening to a degree that seemed unthinkable just a few years ago.

•Distributed energy resources — that is smaller power sources like demand response (when customers alter their electricity use at certain times of the day), storage, and distributed generation, that can be aggregated to provide energy necessary to meet regular demand — will play an increasingly important role in the 21st century electricity system. As states grapple with this reality, they must begin to plan for a much more complicated system that includes new technologies and varied sources of energy.The bottom line, as the report clearly suggests, is that the trend toward low-carbon energy resources, including energy efficiency and renewable energy, is unmistakable.

When we don’t need to generate as much electricity and/or use zero-emissions resources, we reduce the amount of climate-altering pollution belching into our air and harming our health. In short, as the report notes, “There is a clear and durable imperative for clean energy in the U.S.” that is being driven by new technologies, more favorable economics, stricter federal air quality rules, and consumer demand.

The welcome dissemination of common sense in the energy sector, with this news that Energy Efficiency and Renewables Are Lowest Risk/Cost Investments for Utilities, is laudable in this epoch of the lack of common sense in the service of profit over planet by the dirty energy 'industry'.

Posted by: AGelbert

Company Develops Novel System Architecture to Efficiently Separate and Produce Pure Hydrogen From Sunlight and Water SANTA BARBARA, CA--(Marketwired - Oct 21, 2014) - HyperSolar, Inc. (OTCQB: HYSR), the developer of a breakthrough technology to produce renewable hydrogen using sunlight and water, today announced that the Company has achieved a significant technological milestone in its pursuit of clean hydrogen fuel production, by eliminating an expensive hydrogen-oxygen separation process. This will dramatically reduce the overall system cost of hydrogen fuel production from sunlight.

Self-contained sunlight driven water-splitting technology, also commonly referred to as "artificial photosynthesis," typically produces hydrogen and oxygen gas bubbles in the same reactor. This hydrogen-oxygen gas mixture is potentially explosive and must be quickly separated from each other. Current gas separation technology uses selective membranes and is very expensive and the membranes need to frequently be replaced.HyperSolar has developed a novel reactor design and system architecture that uses a high voltage solar cell, that can be wrapped in the company's patent pending polymer coating, that serves two functions:

(1) convert sunlight into electricity to split water into hydrogen on one side, and oxygen on the other side, and

(2) acts as a physical barrier preventing oxygen from combining with hydrogen. The respective hydrogen and oxygen gas bubbles to the top of the reactor as two separate and pure gas streams. This novel design circumvents the need for membrane separators all together.

"Artificial photosynthesis and the concept of separating hydrogen from oxygen has been linked to having great 'potential' for some time," said Tim Young, CEO of HyperSolar. "With this novel reactor design, we believe that we are much closer to eliminating the aspects of the hydrogen production process which many have considered unsafe, costly and inefficient. This breakthrough will support our ultimate goal of cost-effectively producing hydrogen fuel at or near the point of distribution, for use in both consumer and industrial industry sectors."

HyperSolar's technology is based on the concept of developing a low-cost, submersible hydrogen production particle that can split water molecules using sunlight without any other external systems or resources -- acting as artificial photosynthesis. A video of an early proof-of-concept prototype can be viewed at http://hypersolar.com/application.php.

HyperSolar is currently funding a sponsored research agreement with UCSB to further the development of its renewable hydrogen technology.

Posted by: AGelbert

Open to everyone, SolarCity (NASDAQ:SCTY) is issuing the first retail solar bond in the US, a $200 million bond offering backed by its vast solar portfolio.

The minimum investment is just $1000 and depending on the maturity date you choose - which ranges from 1-7 years - you earn 2-4% interest.

It's "a simple way for individuals across the United States to earn attractive returns on their investments while also participating in the nation's transformation to clean energy," they say.

SolarCity Bonds

As you know, SolarCity receives monthly payments from its solar leases. Bond holders will receive interest from that income. This is the first of "fairly continuous offerings," they say.

The bond will be used to finance more leased solar systems, complementing the $5 billion its raised from banks and corporations like Google.

SolarCity is among a handful of corporations that have issued green bonds - its $300 million bond (for institutional investors) was the first in the solar industry.

Last month, SolarCity started construction of its solar gigafactory in Buffalo, New York. Its located in the High-Tech Manufacturing Innovation Hub at SUNY's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering.

The state is investing $750 million for construction in exchange for SolarCity's 10-year lease and investment of $5 billion to run the facility. To raise working capital and funds for acquisitions, the company is issuing $500 million in convertible notes due in 2019.

Investors can buy shares directly at SolarCity's new investment website without paying any fees:

Posted by: AGelbert

Environmentally-friendly business is profitable businessMany associate sustainability with expense, but companies that have embraced it are financially outperforming

SNIPPET:

Quote

The size of the opportunity is enormous. The 3% Report recently published by World Wildlife Fund and CDP shows that the economic prize for curbing carbon emissions in the US economy is $780bn between now and 2020, rising to $190bn a year by 2020. It suggests that one of the biggest levers for delivering this opportunity is "increased efficiency through management and behavioural change" – in other words, lean and green management.

The report puts the return on investment (ROI) for lean and green interventions at 233%. In my experience, this is conservative: most organisations can achieve a far higher ROI when adopting the right behavioural and managerial changes. Some 47 studies from the likes of the Economist Intelligence Unit, Goldman Sachs, AT Kearney, Deloitte, MIT Sloan, Harvard and others show that companies that commit to such aspirational goals as zero waste, zero harmful emissions, and zero use of non-renewable resources are financially outperforming their competitors. Conversely, the DARA Group found that climate disruption is already costing $1.2tn annually, cutting global GDP by 1.6%. Unaddressed, this will double by 2030.

Posted by: AGelbert

After watching SolarCity's (Nasdaq: SCTY) stock soar 368% since its IPO, other solar leasing firms are salivating on the prospects of joining in.

Although it doesn't capture the news the way SCTY does, Vivint Solar has quickly become the second biggest US solar installer, and announced its upcoming IPO.

Parent company Vivint, Inc. is spining off Vivint Solar, offering 20.6 million shares for $16-$18 each, with a goal of raising about 380 million - and a $1.79 billion market cap. It will be on the NY Stock Exchange, under the ticker VSLR.

Last year, Vivint actually out-raised SolarCity in solar leasing funds with $780 million compared to $665 million. Started in 2011, solar is a new business for Vivint, which is the largest home automation services company in North America. It's been able to grow so quickly by selling solar to an existing base of 675,000 customers. Blackstone Group bought them in 2012 for a cool $2 billion.

According to Vivint's SEC filing, the company has installed 130 megawatts of solar at about 22,000 homes in seven states , and raised nine investment funds. Growth is picking up speed, with installations in the first half of 2014 almost equal to the entire previous year (58 MW), and up from just 14 MW in 2012. Vivent posted a profit this year, with revenues of $10 million for the first six months, compared to a loss of $20 million last year. It will use the IPO proceeds to grow the business and to repay its $78 million debt.

In just two years, Vivint Solar has grabbed 9% of the market, but it will be hard to catch up to SolarCity's 29% share, especially with its plans for a solar gigafactory.

And while SolarCity operates across much of the US, Vivint is in just seven states - California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, NY, NJ, Maryland and now, Arizona. Surprisingly, Vivint goes door-to-door to get sales, which requires a large sales force and may be one reason why it's so concentrated geographically.

Besides SolarCity and Vivint, the top US solar installers are SunRun, SunPower (Nasdaq: SPWR) and Sun Edison (NYSE: SUNE).Will SunRun be next?

Posted by: AGelbert

Posted by: AGelbert

VIDEO MESSAGE TO FOSSIL FUELERS FROM A REPRESENTATIVE OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOMUmm, chew, chew, it doesn't look too good for you fossil fuelers now does it? Well, ya had a good ride. Better quit before you are indicted for premeditated criminal negligence and deliberate profit over planet pollution (whoops, I mean while you are ahead, of course ). Boy these unpolluted tree leaves taste even better now that half a billion Christians smelled the "Viable Biosphere AIN'T OPTIONAL" COFFEE.

Posted by: AGelbert

JUNE IS DONE It wasn't real great but it could have been a lot worse!( several pull backs, RAMPF crashed and now it's going nuts towards the upside: 48% gain today! ). I'm STILL hanging in there. $54,402.34

Posted by: AGelbert

I missed out on a major pop in Solar City Stock (I had sold most of it to buy some other stocks because I didn't think it would pop double digits again for several months. I was wrong. Better luck next time. ).

New Hampshire, USA -- In an effort to further streamline its solar business and lower the overall cost of solar energy, SolarCity announced today that it would acquire high-efficiency cell manufacturer Silevo for $200 million. In an effort to scale up the technology, SolarCity plans to construct a 1-GW manufacturing facility located in Buffalo, New York within the next two years.

The solar leasing company acquired mounting company Zep Solar in late 2013 in an effort to further vertically integrate its business. Now, chairman Elon Musk explained SolarCity’s imminent need for more, and cheaper, solar panel production, which he expects to reach “tens of GW” annually. “We thought that there was a risk of not being able to have the solar panels we need to expand [SolarCity] long-term…[When considering] the rate at which solar power is advancing, the amount of panels that are being made at a large scale today is really not fast enough,” he said during a conference call.

Musk emphasized the need for not only increased panel production, but a focus on advanced panel technology, which is what SolarCity believes that Silveo has to offer. A combination of higher volume and increased efficiency will “have a dramatic impact on solar and in particular be able to have solar power compete on an unsubsidized basis with the fossilized grid,” said Musk. “It is critical that you have high-efficiency solar panels and a total installed cost as low as possible.”

The Technology

After reviewing dozens of companies, SolarCity ultimately decided to pursue Silevo due to its proven technology and manufacturing success. Silevo uses what it calls “triex” technology to create a crystalline-amorphous hybrid cell, which creates a tunneling oxide and amorphous silicon layer. These layers allow increased temperature tolerance and lead to a high efficiency that currently stands at 21 percent, but SolarCity hopes to reach 24 percent within the next couple of years. The manufacturing process also uses copper electrode metallization rather than silver, which leads to lower costs.

Watch Ucilia Wang discuss Silevo’s technology with then-vice president of business development and marketing Chris Beitel at the 2012 PV America Conference below:

SolarCity co-founder and chief technology officer Peter Rive explained during the conference call that theSilevo technology compares well to standard cells in the 17-18 percent efficiency range and thin film in the 13-14 percent range . While SolarCity’s goal is to eventually reach 24 percent, Rive also noted that 26.4 percent is possible with ground-mounted and tilted flat roof systems due to the technology’s bifacial nature, which means it can absorb sunlight from both sides of the panel.

Rive explained some of the advantages of higher efficiencies with a common residential rooftop system comparison: “Consider a typical 6-kW system with standard efficiency panels and then picture that same system with 24 percent efficiency tri-cell,” he said. “Currently the system requires 24 panels, but the triex-module will require 18 panels. So it requires less labor, less mounting, less wiring, and so on.”

Big Manufacturing Plans

SolarCity is currently in discussions with the state of New York for its manufacturing facility. According to Rive, its initial target capacity is 1 GW within the next two years, making it one of the single largest solar panel productions in the world, creating thousands of local jobs. Groundbreaking is expected to happen very soon, according to Musk. Silevo currently has a 32-MW factory in China.

When comparing the relative costs of domestic vs overseas manufacturing, said Rive, “we believe that at scale we can achieve a competitive cost domestically as a result of having lower energy costs, avoiding import tariffs, a highly automated manufacturing facility and the fact that the triex cell has less labor content per module due to higher efficiency.”

The Silevo technology can be manufactured with off-the-shelf equipment from the semiconductor and flat-panel display industries and standard wafers, according to Rive. SolarCity also plans to open a research facility in silicon valley to ensure that it meets and even exceeds its efficiency targets.

When all is said and done, SolarCity will be one of the most vertically integrated solar companies in the world, spanning module manufacturing, installation, operations and maintenance, and energy sales. “What I am excited about is when we combine engineers at Silevo, Zep, and SolarCity to tailor manufacturing for all solar panels so they are specifically ready for installation,” said Rive.

Though the company does not have current plans to pursue any of the missing pieces to its vertically integrated puzzle, such as inverters or power optimizers, Musk said that they are open to suggestions and constantly looking to pursue the ultimate goal of the industry — to lower the cost of energy.

“We intend to put a lot of effort R&D on the panel side, into the hardware that we already own, and into inverter and battery technology to provide an overall solution to provide electric power at a price less than fossil fuels that are burdening the grid – that is the key threshold,” said Musk. “The demand grows exponentially as price drops, and it will grow at an enormous pace if we compete with grid electricity with no incentives. That is and has been the goal in order for the world to have sustainable energy."

VIDEO MESSAGE TO FOSSIL FUELERS FROM A REPRESENTATIVE OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOMUmm, chew, chew, it doesn't look too good for you fossil fuelers now does it? Well, ya had a good ride. Better quit before you are indicted for premeditated criminal negligence and deliberate profit over planet pollution (whoops, I mean while you are ahead, of course ). Boy these unpolluted tree leaves sure taste good.

Posted by: AGelbert

Solazyme, Inc. (Solazyme) makes oil. The Company’s technology transforms a range of plant-based sugars into oils. Its renewable products can replace or enhance oils derived from the world’s three existing sources-petroleum, plants and animal fats.

The Company is focused on commercializing its products into three target markets: fuels and chemicals, nutrition, and skin and personal care. In 2010, the Company launched its products, the Golden Chlorella line of dietary supplements. In March 2011, the Company launched its Algenist brand for the luxury skin care market through marketing and distribution arrangements with Sephora S.A. (Sephora International), Sephora USA, Inc. (Sephora USA), and QVC, Inc. (QVC).

Posted by: AGelbert

I'm holding my own but the GEVO stock has been hammered. I expect it to pop next month. I won't dump it while it is in the basement. I hope I'm not caught in endowment bias. GEVO is improving slowly but surely...Symbol Last price Change Shares▲ Cost basis Mkt value Gain Gain % Day's gain GEVO 0.925 +0.035 (3.93%) 12,000.00 15,675.20 11,100.00 -4,575.20 -29.19%+420.00 Overall return-33.47% -29.19%

Posted by: AGelbert

The billionaire plans to plow an additional $15 billion into wind and solar in the future.

Noah Buhayar and Jim Polson, Bloomberg June 10, 2014 | 2 Comments

Warren Buffett briefly lost track of how many billions of dollars his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is spending to build wind and solar power in the U.S. That didn’t stop him from vowing to double the outlay.

Describing the company’s increasing investment in renewable energy at the Edison Electric Institute’s annual convention in Las Vegas yesterday, Buffett had to rely on a deputy, Greg Abel, to remind him just how much they’d committed: $15 billion.

Without missing a beat, Buffett responded: “There’s another $15 billion ready to go, as far as I’m concerned.”

Such bold remarks are common for the Berkshire chairman and chief executive officer. He frequently talks about hunting for “elephant”-size acquisitions and making multibillion-dollar stock purchases.

Still, the comment speaks to the kinds of investments that are increasingly appealing to the billionaire now that his Omaha, Nebraska-based company is the fifth-largest in the world by market value. With dozens of units spinning off cash, Buffett has been allocating funds to regulated, capital-intensive businesses such as railroad BNSF and power companies.

“Buffett has always steered Berkshire toward the future,” said Lawrence Cunningham, a professor at George Washington University and author of the forthcoming book “Berkshire Beyond Buffett.” “Lately, that has meant intensifying the company’s focus on rudimentary, long-lasting businesses.”

‘Keep Moving’

While utilities don’t offer the sort of outsize returns of businesses that Buffett, 83, favored earlier in his career, he has said he likes the industry because it provides opportunities for reinvestment and further acquisitions. He bought control of an energy holding company in Iowa in 2000 and helped bankroll its expansion.

The unit, now called Berkshire Hathaway Energy, operates electric grids in the U.K., natural gas pipelines that stretch from the Great Lakes to Texas and electric utilities in states including Oregon and Nevada. Its renewable investments include wind farms in Iowa and Wyoming, as well as solar farms in California and Arizona.

Unlike other utility-holding companies, Berkshire Hathaway Energy retains all of its earnings. That probably will continue, Buffett said yesterday, estimating that the unit could reinvest about $30 billion into its business in the next decade.

“We’re going to keep doing that as far as the eye can see,” he said. “We’ll just keep moving.”

‘Strong Need’

Berkshire has been able to plow so much into renewable energy because it can use tax credits to offset profit at other businesses, Abel, the 52-year-old CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, said yesterday. Units at Buffett’s company include auto insurer Geico, Dairy Queen, Shaw carpet and T-shirt maker Fruit of the Loom.

Investments in renewable energy will be needed as the U.S. seeks to reduce its reliance on fossil-fuel generation. Electric utilities face cuts of 30 percent in carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 compared with 2005, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates of a proposed rule issued June 2.

“It’s encouraging that he wants to invest because as an industry we have a strong need for capital,” Nick Akins, CEO of American Electric Power Co., said of Buffett’s remarks on renewables.

AEP is a partner with Berkshire in Electric Transmission Texas, a joint venture that’s building and operating power lines carrying electricity from the state’s windy plains to cities.

While spending $30 billion on renewable-energy projects would have been unheard of two decades ago at Berkshire, Buffett is signaling that the returns are attractive, said Jeff Matthews, a shareholder and author of books about the company. The comment may turn out to be more than an off-hand remark.

“If he says it, he means it,” said Matthews. “The whole complexion of the company has changed.”

They draw a line between the side of a company that develops projects and the Yield Co, which owns and operates them long-term. Investors benefit from long-term, stable dividends that come from selling electricity to utilities under 20-25-year power purchase agreements. For income investors, they offer one of the few ways to make reliable dividends from high quality, very low risk projects. Any cash that's not paid out in dividends is reinvested in new projects. These are the other YieldCos:•Hannon Armstrong (NYSE: HASI): unique in that it invests mostly in energy efficiency upgrades for big buildings, also renewable energy;•Pattern Energy Group (NASDAQ:PEGI): wind farms•TransAlta Renewables (TSE:RNW): wind and hydro•Greencoat UK Wind (LON: UKW): UK wind farms•Renewables Infrastructure Group (LON: TRIG): solar and wind projects in Europe•Bluefield Solar Income Fund (LON: BSIF): buy or finance large-scale solar plants in the UK

Posted by: AGelbert

Agelbert NOTE: GEVO has a VERY depressed, down in the basement, stock price. If you like to bottom feed for high risk, high potential Renewable Energy stocks, this one is for you! Toray to Convert Gevo's Para-Xylene to Bio-Polyester (PET)

ENGLEWOOD, Colo., May 29, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gevo, Inc. (Nasdaq:GEVO) announced that it is selling para-xylene (PX) derived from its renewable isobutanol to Toray, one of the world's leading producers of fibers, plastics, films, and chemicals. PX is a primary raw material for the manufacture of bio-polyester (PET). PET has the largest global market share of all synthetic fibers and is also used in plastic bottles, films, and as a polymer for many other applications. The ability to produce PX as a building block for PET creates large market opportunities for Gevo and partners who desire bio-based plastic bottles, bio-based polyester fiber for apparel and textiles, and for many other products.

The PX was sold under a previously announced offtake agreement with Toray. Toray also provided funding assistance for the construction of Gevo's PX demo plant at its biorefinery at South Hampton Resources, where Gevo also produces other hydrocarbon products such as renewable jet fuel and renewable iso-octane. Toray expects to produce fibers, yarns, and films from Gevo's PX, for scale-up evaluation and market development purposes.

As a result of the shipment, Gevo will recognize revenue associated with both the sale of the PX, as well as the initial funding assistance provided by Toray for the project.Gevo has also received support from The Coca-Cola Company for the development of its renewable PX technology. Research and development support was provided by The Coca-Cola Company under a previously announced Joint Development Agreement.

"We greatly appreciate the support that Toray and The Coca-Cola Company have provided Gevo in developing bio-PX. This is a groundbreaking achievement that we are very proud to have accomplished. This demonstrates that bio-isobutanol is truly a building block for the renewable chemicals industry," said Patrick Gruber, Gevo's Chief Executive Officer.

AboutGEVO

Gevo is a leading renewable technology, chemical products, and next generation biofuels company. Gevo's underlying technology uses a combination of synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, chemistry and chemical engineering to focus primarily on the production and sale of isobutanol, as well as related products from renewable feedstocks. Gevo's strategy is to commercialize biobased alternatives to petroleum-based products to allow for the optimization of fermentation facilities' assets, with the ultimate goal of maximizing cash flows from the operation of those assets.

Gevo produces isobutanol, ethanol and high-value animal feed at its first fermentation plant in Luverne, MN.Gevo has also developed technology to produce hydrocarbon products from renewable alcohols. Gevo currently operates its first biorefinery in Silsbee, TX, in collaboration with South Hampton Resources Inc., to produce renewable jet fuel, octane, and ingredients for plastics like polyester. Gevo has a marquee list of partners including The Coca-Cola Company, Total SA, Sasol Chemical Industries, and LANXESS, Inc., an affiliate of LANXESS Corporation, among others. Gevo is committed to a sustainable bio-based economy that meets society's needs for plentiful food and clean air and water. For more information, visit www.gevo.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include statements that are not purely statements of historical fact, and can sometimes be identified by our use of terms such as "intend," "expect," "plan," "estimate," "future," "strive" and similar words. These forward-looking statements are made on the basis of the current beliefs, expectations and assumptions of the management of Gevo and are subject to significant risks and uncertainty. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements. All such forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and the company undertakes no obligation to update or revise these statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Although the company believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, these statements involve many risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from what may be expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements. For a further discussion of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those expressed in these forward-looking statements, as well as risks relating to the business of Gevo in general, see the risk disclosures in the Annual Report on Form 10-K of Gevo for the year ended December 31, 2013, and in subsequent reports on Forms 10-Q and 8-K and other filings made with the SEC by Gevo.

Total global installed capacity of wind turbines at sea is forecast to rise to 43 gw by 2020 from 6.5 gw at the end of 2013, with the U.K., China and Germany the biggest offshore wind markets, according to HSBC.

The opportunity for manufacturers justifies a strategic long-term focus on the offshore segment, the firm advises; after 2015, “the rapid growth in offshore installations becomes a key to driving growth in wind technology."

Posted by: AGelbert

Formerly known as Suntech, Shunfeng Photovoltaic International is looking to move into project development.

Iain Wilson and Ehren Goossens, Bloomberg May 28, 2014

TOKYO -- Shunfeng Photovoltaic International Ltd., the new owner of what was once the world’s biggest solar manufacturer, is seeking to issue HK$6 billion ($774 million) of shares to buildsolar-power plants.

Shunfeng plans to sell as many as 600 million new shares at not less than HK$10 apiece, according to a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange. The company is also planning to change its name to Sunfu International Ltd.

The new name and the share offering reflect the company’s expansion from a manufacturer to a power producer. It acquired Wuxi Suntech Power in April for 3 billion yuan ($480 million), the biggest panel maker in 2012, and this month agreed to buy an inverter company. A sister company owns a stake in the wafer supplier LDK Solar Co. Shunfeng Chairman Zhang Yi said in January that the company would install 3 gigawatts of solar systems this year.

“The expansion has successfully transformed the group from, previously, an upstream solar products manufacturer into a fully integrated solar company with downstream solar-power generation assets,” according to a filing yesterday. “The group has future plans to expand into the business of integration of solar energy storage and photovoltaics, and other forms of renewable or clean energy.”

‘Largest’ Supplier

The goal is to “become the world’s largest integrated clean-energy supplier,” Chief Executive Officer Eric Luo said in a video on Shunfeng’s website. The company is controlled by real estate tycoon Zheng Jianming, who took a 30 percent stake in 2012.

The proposed share offering represents 28 percent of the company’s existing share capital, and the HK$10 price is an 8.9 percent discount to the stock’s close yesterday. Shunfeng’s shares were down 4.9 percent at HK$10.44 as of 2:04 p.m. local time today.

Chairman Zhang said Shunfeng expects to install 10 gigawatts of solar power in the three years through 2016. That would require investing 25 billion yuan this year.

That strategy may be difficult to pull off, Stephen Simko, analyst for Morningstar Investment Services Inc. in Chicago said in an interview. “Their idea of throwing more money in their operations doesn’t seem particularly intelligent.”

LDK is “structurally uncompetitive compared with their best peers,” said Simko, who dropped coverage of the wafer producer because it “effectively bankrupted operations of the company.”

Shunfeng needs additional financing to expand, it said on May 7 after the China Business News reported that the company would seek to obtain 100 billion yuan in credit lines from China Development Bank Corp.

China had almost 20 gigawatts of installed solar capacity in 2013, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

The National Development and Reform Commission earlier this month said China plans to speed up solar power development, targeting a more than tripling of installed capacity to 70 gigawatts by 2017 to cut reliance on coal. Copyright 2014 Bloomberg.